Here is one I ran across last night from Willie Ryan's 1938 book Scientific Checkers Made Easy:

In a note, the Bronx Comet sez:

"A good player never relaxes until the game is over (good to the last move). Black has two logical looking moves at this point (---- and ----). Offhand, both seem to draw, but the wary expert, who always plays slowly, is ever on his guard to avoid fumbling an ending, soon discovers that one of them loses as follows:"

(In the actual note, Willie gives both moves and the blunder; also "soon" is a relative term...).

The "wary expert, who always plays slowly" then presents a forced-loss move sequence analysis for the blunder (which, needless to say, he did not chose in the actual game) from this position :

Gary, this is checkers Murthy law which I covered in Sixth: "From two winning (or drawn) moves one is always a draw (loss)" Stick into this law and you can save a tons of points

In this position I used my old and favor method of cuts: I cutted all losing moves here for red, one by one. My calculations took 15 minutes and showed that 3-8 and 24-28 appear to be a loss. And 3-8 loses nicely by getting 2 red pieces into famous bind and eventually catch a man.

I also was unable to locate a clear win for white after 1-5. It looked so curious for me that there is draw here after 1-5 (hard to believe) that I set program and ... yes, verdict was quick and obvious: 1-5 draw.

I don't consider myself as "slow player" but in other hands - I never play fast and immediately. My first checkers teacher told us on the first lesson:

"Keep your hands always out of board and use them after you make decision. Head must be ahead of hands"

As I have stated before on this Forum, I can think of no other place in all the world, either on the internet or anyplace else, that a "regular" player of any game or sport (and I play various kinds of each) can get one-on-one advice and/or instruction on a day-to-day continuing basis from the reigning World Champion (or even a past World Champion for that matter). It is almost, I would think, unheard of.

I wonder, for example, if I could get Roger Federer to give me a couple of pointers on my backhand, Viswanathan Anand to tell me why I keep screwing up the Sicilian, or Lance Armstrong to give me some tips on my climbing technique? Probably not... .

And yet, every day on this Forum the checkers World Champion is willing to do exactly the equivalent of those things, and a lot more, for every Forum member who asks (and even for some who don't ask...). Quite amazing.

Sometimes I don't think we realize how much of a unique resource and good deal we checkers players have with the ACF Forum...and, yeah, I know sometimes we (and I certainly include myself) don't agree with the things Alex has to say; ah, well, probably better get used to it because it's part of the deal and just the give-and-take of normal life. Plus, it certainly makes things interesting and that's worth something; a lot, actually.

And we get all of this plus a printed copy of the Bulletin and other benefits for a paltry twenty-five bucks a year...gotta be one o' the best deals on the planet.

Alex_Moiseyev wrote:Mouth even better than brain, because brain somehow is limited, but mouth unlimited ! Mouth can say things which brain tries to avoid

LOL you two crack me up

jaguar72 wrote:Thanks for your comments and insights, Alex. Very much appreciated....

And yet, every day on this Forum the checkers World Champion is willing to do exactly the equivalent of those things, and a lot more, for every Forum member who asks (and even for some who don't ask...). Quite amazing....Gary Jenkins/jaguar72